The U.S. Department of the Interior's (DOI) Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has announced it will hold a second competitive lease sale for renewable energy on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The auction, scheduled to take place on Sept. 4, will offer nearly 112,800 acres offshore Virginia for commercial wind energy leasing.

In June, the DOI and BOEM announced the first-ever competitive lease sale for wind energy on the OCS. That auction will be held July 31 and offer 164,750 acres offshore Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

According to BOEM, the wind energy area offshore Virginia will be auctioned as a single lease and has the potential to support more than 2 GW of wind generation. The area is composed of 19 full OCS blocks and 13 sub-blocks.

BOEM says the area available for auction is identical to the one announced in the proposed sale notice that was published in the Federal Register on Dec. 3, 2012. The agency has pre-qualified the following eight offshore wind developers to participate in the upcoming lease sale: